First Steps!

Well, they are not his "first" steps, but they are the first ones we got on video! He took 3-4 steps exactly 3 weeks ago and has been slowly building his confidence ever since. This weekend, he really started to take off and used walking almost as much as crawling to get from point A to point B.

A Very Dirty Morning...

It is SO hot here in Austin that we've found the best time to enjoy the outdoors is early in the morning. It's also convenient b/c he is wearing his pjs and we can just take those off after he gets them filthy, instead of going through two outfits. He had fun this morning walking around in the screened in porch (he is getting so brave- up to about 10-11 steps- we'll post a video later) and then all the way outside to eat some rocks. (If you look closely, you can see the dirt all over his face.) After all of this fun and a nap, we went to the zoo. I haven't uploaded those pics yet though, so there will be another blog entry coming soon!!

Kickin' It

I always check on AJ before I go to bed at night and this is how I found him two nights ago. The first one is how he looked when I went in, the second is how he moved after my flash disturbed him a little. Luckily, he didn't wake up- but it was so cute I couldn't resist!

CAKE!!

Well, I've been really slacking on updating the blog, but lucky for me I can cheat today. We had a play date today with Lily and Kyla. Lily's mom, Mollie, set Aidric and Kyla up with some yummy cake to get some fun cake smashin' pics. Here is a link to her photography blog. (If you live in Austin, she is an amazing photographer!!!)

http://blog.photographyinbloom.com/

Ice Cream

We've been depriving this child of ice cream for approximately 380 days now. Last night, we went to Phil's for burgers, played on the playground for awhile and then ordered some delicious ice cream from Amy's. We decided to let him give it a try. He decided I couldn't scoop it in his mouth fast enough- he LOVED it!

He did not love sharing though....

A Year's Worth of Growing

I am organizing all of Aidric's old clothes into storage bins, and I couldn't resist taking a picture to compare. The green outfit is a preemie size sleeper and hat- the blue one is an 18 month. You can see in the last pictures that the green outfit was a tiny bit big on him (he was four days old when we were allowed to put clothes on him, so that's how old he is in the pics)- the hat fit perfectly but the sleeper was baggy!!! (To be fair, the blue sleeper is still too big for him too, but he wears it!)

Happy 1st Birthday AJ!!!

I have already admitted that I am post dating this, so I won't try to pretend that I am writing this on his birthday. It's actually June 9 and I worked at the hospital today. Rebekah, Aidric's babysitter, got him dressed while I was gone. When I got home, he was asleep, and I had to wake him to leave for swim class. I went in his room and there he was all stretched out in his crib. He was wearing a new "big boy" polo shirt he hadn't worn before and a pair of kahakis. He looked like he should be getting on the kindergarten bus any minute! If the clothes weren't enough,I realized for the first time, that his (not so) little body takes up about 3/4 of his crib! I remember the first time I put him in there for a nap and he took up about 1/20 of it.

All of that rambling is to say, "WHERE IN THE WORLD DID MY BABY GO??????????"

After celebrating the first year of our little man's life, this is a great time to say how blessed we are. Although he was anxious to arrive and put us through a little stress for the first three weeks in the NICU, he has been healthy ever since. He is more fun every day as he figures things out and learns new things. And I have to tell you, he really gets a kick out of himself as well. When he does something he is proud of, he claps and looks at you expectantly, like you should be clapping too!

And speaking of things I am proud of.....he took his first steps today!!!! He has been walking around holding our hands for weeks, but really relying on us for balance. The past week, he has been "using" us less but unwilling to let go. Today, he took a few steps in the living room and then while we were at Barnes and Noble playing by the train track, he let go of the table and just walked over to me (four or so steps) like he'd been doing it his whole life, no big deal!! I was soooooo proud!!!

Here are some pictures from his birthday, as well as a link to several MORE pictures!

www.share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZMmbVo1cuWaK

(I forgot to add a caption to a few of the swimming ones- I am not trying to drown Aidric in the ones where he is underwater- he is showing off his swim school skills! He can hold his breath for 7 seconds and swim by himself for 4 seconds now!!)



The cake (for the record, I was so disappointed in how it looked- but it tasted delicious!). Look how excited he is in this pic to get his hands on it!


The excitement turned to tears when I wouldn't let him grab the candles!


All was well soon enough when it was time for him to actually EAT CAKE! I made this one for him- a slightly healthier version of chocolate cake. He LOVED it. Eventually, I had to stop him b/c he just kept piling it in....


"Here daddy, you try some." (notice the frosting on his ear/side of his face!


Opening some presents..

Outside for some bubble fun..


and then some finger painting!

Just hangin' with cousin Grace

What a difference two months makes! The last time Aidric and Grace saw each other was in March, when they came to Austin to visit us. At that point, they interacted very little and barely noticed each other. During this visit, they were so interested in each other! In the car, they would lean forward to be able to see each other and then giggle and play "peek-a-boo". In the morning, they seemed to immediately look for each other and would get huge smiles once they got together. Grace is officially the "bully" taking anything Aidric got his hands on. For the time being, at least, he didn't seem to mind; he would just move on to something new. A few times, we all swore he was being clever and "pretending" to want something just so she would take it and he would move on to the item he really wanted =).

He plotted his revenge when it came to food though. He would lean over and steal the food off of her tray. If she was eating and he wasn't, he would stand up next to her highchair, begging. She would kindly get some food and put it in his mouth. It was so cute!

Doesn't he look like such a "cool guy"?


I'm screwed. He LOVED both Uncle Tony's dog, Apollo (in this picture) and cousin Gracie's dog, Jack.


This was before we left for Vegas- shouldn't Sarah have twins next time around?


I promise, we didn't even plan the matching pajamas!


We attempted finger painting with them on two occasions. Both times, they tried to eat the paint, resulting in a mess, but some great pictures.

LAS VEGAS!!

Our first weekend away was a huge success!! That is not to say I didn't cry my eyes out walking out the door, and when we got in the car, I told Chris, "just drive", b/c I knew once we got some distance between us, I would feel much better.

Sarah and Mary sent us a million text messages and picture messages each day that we were gone, with constant updates. That helped A LOT!

While we were in Vegas, we saw the Cirque de Soleil show, Ka, which was pretty amazing. We had a delicious steak dinner and spent one day at the pool. One night, we sat down at the blackjack tables and all four of us immediately lost too much money in the course of about 20 minutes. We went to dinner and tried our luck again. Gretchen and Chris ended up winners, so Brent and I happily watched them win some of our money back!

A few pics from the weekend....

catching up....

I am soooooo behind on updating the blog! Here's a quick recap and then I am going to go back and post date some entries. Aidric, Chris and I flew to Ontario, CA on May 23rd- we spent Friday night with Sarah, Richard, Grace and Mary. Then, on Saturday, Chris and I drove to Las Vegas to meet up with Brent and Gretchen for the weekend!! It was soooo incredibly hard to leave Aidric, but we knew he was in excellent hands. He is particularly in love with his Aunt Sarah.

After a weekend in Vegas, we spent a few more days at Sarah and Richard's and then packed it up and moved over to Mary and Larry's for a few days. We had a small birthday party on Saturday for Aidric, and it was perfect. Eating, swimming, just hanging out...

We are back in Austin and re-adjusting to every day life! I know a blog entry without pictures is a huge disappointment, but like I said, I am going back now to start working on that!!